BTEC Perfoming Arts - Logs

In this rehearsal I worked with both the actors playing Ismene and the other Antigone actors to work on the first Ismene scene because we felt we needed to add emphasis to important bits of speech and also build on the sibling relationship between the two sisters. Because the first bit of dialogue has Ismene sat on a chair and Antigone sat at her feet, we wanted the chair to be nearer front centre stage so we had to stage a moving of the chair from the position it is in in the Nurse scene (back stage left) to the position it is in the nurse scene. So that we decided that after Nurse exits, Antigone would move the chair for Ismene to sit on and dust it over for her. We thought this would work as it would show the differences between the two sisters but also their close relationship and how well they know each other. Halfway through the scene, Ismene is trying to persuade Antigone not to bury her brother and 'understand' Creon's point of view. To which Antigone refuses t...

 On Wednesday's lesson, as well as going over the scene with Nurse, we began to stage the scene with Ismene that follows it. We played around with a few different ideas for the initial position of Antigone and Ismene, one to show both their closeness and their differences, as they are quite opposing from one another. Ismene is a beautiful, well dressed and ladylike woman compared to the younger Antigone who sits in the dirt and cares much less about what's 'lady-like'. So we had Ismene sat on the nurses chair at an angle and Antigone sat below her with her head on Ismene's knee. Almost immediately in the conversation Antigone brings up how pretty Ismene is and it is clear they have had many similar conversations in the past as Ismene goes to stand up whilst saying 'don't make fun', but Antigone places her hand on her leg to stop her and reassures her that it's a 'comfort to me this morning' - which could perhaps be reffering to the fact that ...

On Mondays lesson the actors playing the part of the nurse and I began to lolok over the first scene between Antigone and Nurse. The characters are very close to one another, the Nurse has raised Antigone from childhood so feels a very maternal need to make sure she stays safe and makes the right decision. However, it is also quite a friendly relationship, we decided to show this by starting the scene by making Antigone walk on stage to see the nurse asleep in her chair, pick up some grapes and see an opportunity: she drops one of the grapes into nurses mouth which wakes her up choking, we then go straight into the script. This is not an action Antigone would do to someone like Creon, it shows both the childishness of her character and her fondness for her Nurse.    As is evident in the script, Antigone has obviously just had an incredibly sensory experience with nature - because she knows this is one of her last moments to experience nature in all its beauty so she fully take...